In March of 1860, Joseph R. Walker, while in Visalia for supplies during a prospecting trip across the Southern Sierra, said he would not use the route then known as Walkers Pass but instead follow a route he had first taken in 1834 and used several times afterward, which he said saved 150 miles. From Visalia he planned to go south to Tule River, then east up its southern branches, cross Kern River 50 miles from Keyesville above the canyon, and continue to Big Owens Lake on the east side. A contemporary statement held that Walkers Pass as shown on maps was incorrect and should be northeast of Keyesville. Before the 1860s, Deer Creek was a south fork of Tule River, and Zenas Leonard's 1834 account of Walker's expedition better matches this trail, an early Indian trading route across the Southern Sierra, indicating that Walker's 1834 trip went up Deer Creek rather than up the South Fork of the Kern River.